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Softonic review

By Nick Mead

Excellent

9

Since Firefox exploded onto the web-browsing scene in 2004, it has been downloaded an incredible 200 million times according to its developers, Mozilla. Since then, apart from some minor changes, visual teaks and security fixes, there haven’t been any radical changes – that is until now. Firefox 2.0 is finally here and brings fans a whole host of integrated functions that were previously either unavailable or needed plug-ins.

Note that many of the existing themes and extensions will not work with this beta release although you can try forcing them with the “Nightly” extension – at your own risk of course.

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Amongst the security highlights of 2.0 are anti-phishing support which helps the browser discriminate between genuine websites and those intended to store and retrieve your personal information. Other goodies include enhanced tabbed browsing (each with their own close option finally), the ability to un-close tabs, search plug-in/add-on manager, and much, much more. One of the most useful features we found was a predictive search function within the Google toolbar that would suggest potential phrases and popular search terms as you typed. The automatic session retrieval option (previously available with the Tab Mix Plus plugin) is also a tonic when your system crashes or you’ve got too many tabs open and Firefox cripples under the strain.

The extension incompatibility issue is the main drawback although this will change as developers update their plugins over the coming weeks and months. The legendary memory leak also still doesn’t seem to have been fixed as Firefox continues to guzzle processing power. This resulted in frequent crashes, keyboard head-banging and violent swearing.

Whilst the recently released Internet Explorer 7 is only just introducing tabbed browsing, Firefox 2.0 is already taking internet surfing to a new level. Although many of the new features are available with plug-ins anyway, this is still a rip-roaring browser and consolidates Firefox’s position as the best browser on the market by miles.

Firefox 2.0.0.20

User reviews about Firefox

by Anonymous

Download to Firefox 3.4?. Firefox 3.5.7 has so many bugs that I want to Downgrade to 3.4. Version 3.6 disables m... MoreDownload to Firefox 3.4?. Firefox 3.5.7 has so many bugs that I want to Downgrade to 3.4. Version 3.6 disables many of my favorite ADD ONS. Just like Microsoft, Firefox tries to do everything for you. Stop the monster NOW!

reviewed on January 22, 2010

by Anonymous

have some bugs. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.download.com&quot;&gt;have some serious bugs&lt;... Morehave some bugs. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.download.com&quot;&gt;have some serious bugs&lt;/a&gt;

reviewed on October 27, 2008

by Anonymous

KISS. Compared to IE and Safari, Firefox is a dream. However, if internet security is a serious goal, Opera rank... MoreKISS. Compared to IE and Safari, Firefox is a dream. However, if internet security is a serious goal, Opera ranks as the best browser on earth - by far. Pros: Firefox is great! Cons: Opera is even better!

reviewed on August 8, 2008

by Anonymous

My Favorite Part: Add-Ons. Firefox is better than internet explorer in a few things. It may not be as austere a... MoreMy Favorite Part: Add-Ons. Firefox is better than internet explorer in a few things. It may not be as austere and simple, but that is what makes it better. Firefox is highly customizable with add-ons from the site including the popular PicLens and many themes such as the NASA night launch theme which shows a spaceship blasting off when loading a page.
Pros: Highly Customizable
Nice Appearance
Fast Browser
Nice Icon which can also be customized
Has a place where it keeps all downloads Cons: Sometimes cannot open adobe files
Has to save setups in Downloads folder (can be deleted later)
Has problems loading certain pages